Critical Essay on the French Revolution
Miscellanea / / December 31, 2021
Critical Essay on the French Revolution
A before and after 1789: the meaning of the French Revolution for humanity
It is almost a commonplace in history to say that French Revolution 1789 changed the whole world forever. He did it, in the first place, because he violently broke with the Old Regime in France, and established a short-lived Republic that, nevertheless, served as an example to the aspirations of change of the whole world: a new world was finally possible. And at the same time it was an alert for neighboring kingdoms, who soaked their beards in many different ways. In fact, Austria and Prussia were so fiercely opposed to the Revolution that, as is known, they waged war on France between 1792 and 1797, trying to restore monarchical order by force.
However, the historical importance of the French Revolution not only has to do with the possibility of a reordering of government, but also with a deep reconstruction of the public: the ways of participating in society, of enjoying it and even imagining it changed, and those changes were much more durable than the republican government, since the latter died at the feet of the First French Empire, that is, at the feet of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Proof of this is that, even under the imperial rule of Bonaparte, the social and cultural ideas born in the revolution flourished. and they expanded throughout Europe, putting an end to different absolutist monarchies and everywhere sowing the seeds of a liberal Europe; seeds that germinated in the following years, after the defeat at Waterloo.
The main changes of the revolution
The most obvious and most talked about aspect of the revolutionary changes in France has to do with the fall of the absolutist monarchy of Louis XVI. As is known, the insurgent forces rose up against this despotic government that kept France submerged in a deep economic crisis. And in July 1789 they flooded the streets to end the feudal order inherited from the Middle Ages.
Initially, this consisted of imposing a constitutional monarchy, that is, a monarchical government in which the king was subject to the law, and not the latter to the will of the monarch. But the monarch's refusal to sign the laws emanating from the newly founded National Assembly and, probably, his confidence that the forces pro-absolutists from neighboring countries would end up reimposing the traditional order led France towards a republican order, inspired by the classical world Greco-Roman.
This change was strongly felt in the art world, for example, in which a neoclassical style prevailed, determined to reincarnate the ancient world in the imaginary of the France of the moment. Thus, for example, was born Marianne, female incarnation of the French Republic, represented as a combative young woman, dressed in a Phrygian cap and often dressed in the colors of the French tricolor cockade. Something similar happened with the "War Song for the Army of the Rhine", enthusiastically adopted by the revolutionaries as "La Marseillaise", the future national anthem.
Those were the symbols of a new national culture: museums were opened to the public for the first time, so that the enjoyment of works of art was not exclusive to the aristocracy, and a new educational model, with liberal roots, was established with the founding of institutions such as the Ecole Normale, the Institute of France or the University of France. Knowledge, and not the conditions of origin, now became the central element of education.
In other areas, as well, the revolutionary changes were many and very significant: the creation of a bureaucracy state that would allow and promote equal rights among citizens, the exercise of the vote and the declaration of the human rights fundamental; a tax system of equitable contributions that later led to the creation of the National Bank of France; and the re-dimensioning of the power of the Catholic Church, whose influence on the leadership of society was markedly diminished. The bourgeois world was born with a bang, and in 1971 it already had its first Constitution.
Follow the example
Despite its stumbling blocks and its immense burden of subsequent violence, the initial successes of the The French Revolution dazzled and convinced the bourgeoisies of other European countries and of the colonies. Inspired by this new possible world (and also by the American Revolution of 1765), the American Creoles soon took up arms to cut the administrative tie with the metropolis. Other monarchies, on the other hand, caught the winds of change in advance and laid the foundations for modernization and liberalization of the political system more controlled and on their own terms, which in the long run would allow them to retain their heads.
The historical importance of these events was such that the French Revolution is still considered as the fundamental event to understand the transition between the Modern Age and the Contemporary Age. Although throughout the nineteenth century France oscillated between its imperial, republican and monarchical tendencies constitutional laws, the truth is that a profound change had taken place in their society and its echoes had been felt in the whole world.
The coming revolutions of 1830, 1848 and 1871 in France would demonstrate this: sovereignty and self-determination were now the undisputed property of the people, and not of the rulers they elected. The road to modern democracy, though with its potholes and sharp curves, had begun to be built.
References:
- "Essay" in Wikipedia.
- "French Revolution" in Wikipedia.
- "The French Revolution: the end of the Old Regime" in National Geographic in Spanish.
- "What consequences did the French Revolution have?" in The vanguard.
- "French Revolution" in History.com.
- "French Revolution (1787-1799)" in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
What is an essay?
The rehearsal is a literary genre whose text is characterized by being written in prose and by addressing a specific topic freely, making use of the arguments and the author's appreciations, as well as the literary and poetic resources that make it possible to embellish the work and enhance its aesthetic features. It is considered a genre born in the European Renaissance, fruit, above all, from the pen of the French writer Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), and that over the centuries it has become the most used format to express ideas in a structured, didactic and formal.
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